Mrs. Woodbury's classroom before the tables arrived.
Mason's first day of school with his friend Kyle who lives down the street and whom I watched a few days a week for two years before they both started school.
I just love this photo of Mason from our day at the waterpark for Mitchell's birthday. He just loves to laugh and make others laugh....love you Mason!
Matthew spent the day in a giraffe hat -- De La Rue gave all the kids an animal hat for the special day -- he was just the only one who wanted to wear his.
Maggie and Maguire spent the day like this most of the time. I do have 2 double strollers and they do serve different purposes, much to Mike's dismay -- I do not regret purchasing this side-by-side version for outings like this. It folds up to the size of two umbrella strollers and holds up to 50 lbs on each side.
We sat in the front row at the dolphin show and got splashed a bit when they jumped up right in front of us. Having seen wild dolphins just off our boat in Mexico this summer, we parent's just weren't very impressed with the show....it's okay...it's all about the kids, right!!!???
The highlight of the day was the fountain area in the special event pavilion where we had lunch. It was after we ate that the kids discovered this fun place to play -- kudos to mom for bringing extra clothes for the twins, they were absolutely soaked!
Mason has the craziest expressions sometimes!
Maguire just enjoyed himself so much. It brought tears to my eyes just to see my kids having simple fun on the hottest day of the summer.
More silly expressions from the dimple boy!
Mitchell wasn't even too old to get in on the fun -- either that or it was just so blazin' hot that he didn't care anymore! Two days later on Mitchell's birthday at a waterpark, it was almost cold-- barely 75 degrees at the warmest part of the day. Post to follow....
Maguire - what a doll - he's really developing his own unique personality about now. He just loves to laugh.
Mason and Maguire nearly crashed because Mason refused to open his eyes as he ran through the water.
Once again, an outing with no photos of Maggie. This was the only one for the day. I've developed such a complex about taking so many photos of my only precious daughter and not many of her brothers that I've recently missed taking ANY photos of her. She is a doll and I will work on balancing my subjects!
This day was near the end of the road for the division of "De La Rue Cash Systems" who transferred us here to Illinois almost 4 years ago. Mike's division of the company was sold and is now called "Talaris" which just doesn't roll off the tongue like "De La Rue" but it's still a good job and he's really enjoying the challenges he's been given to work on recently. He is a Senior Consultant and Key Account Manager to US Bank. If you're curious about what his company is all about sometime, check out their website at www.talaris.com.
The entire water park called "Raging Waves" had an Aussie theme. The attraction of the day was called "The Boomerang". On the outside it looked like this:
Mitchell with friends coming off the Boomerang.
Maggie and Maguire came for the first 2 hours but it was actually a pretty cold day - only got to 75 degrees and was slightly windy. Mike worked from home that day and came to pick them up before lunch (the park is only 15 minutes from our house) so they could eat at home and have a nap. Thanks to Felicia for watching them after nap time so Mike could join us for a couple hours before the park closed. For the first time in almost 2 1/2 years - I didn't take a single photo of Maggie this day....she mostly spent her time wrapped up in a towel although I did go down a kiddie slide with her a few times. Maguire isn't so adventurous.
The had a great wavepool with a zero depth entrance so the twins and I played there for a while, too.
Raging Waves in Yorkville really is a great fun place but for our family budget will only be a place for special occasions. Turning 12 was a big deal and we hadn't gone to any fun parks all summer.
It was fun to see the boys interact with each other throughout the day....We had a great time! Thanks to Kellin, Spencer, Steven, Tom and Conner for helping celebrate with us!
Mason and Matthew certainly weren't complaining that they got to come along, too. With the boys all getting older and Maggie and Maguire home with Mike it was so nice to have some quiet time by myself. I actually fell asleep in a lounge chair for an hour or so in between the boys checking in with me periodically. 
Just Maguire all dressed and ready for Dad to pick him up.
I hope you enjoyed your birthday, Mitchell. We are very proud of you and the young man you are becoming! We love you!
Mike & Jeremy lounging on the deck chairs. It was actually very cool on the days we were at sea so we looked like four old retired people with our noses in a book and using towels as blankets out on the rear deck.
Our first port day was in Cabo San Lucas. We headed out on a huge catamaran for a snorkel adventure. This is a photo of "Lovers Beach" that is well known just by the place where we dropped anchor and were ferried in on "tender" boats since there is no actual port for the ships to pull up to there.
Koryn and Jeremy - hard to believe we have eight kids between the our two families! Well - were were just happily married, kid-free friends for a mere five days. So relaxing!!!
Mike, Me, Koryn & Jeremy. We feel so blessed to have stayed in touch despite the 1400 mile distance between our current homes.
I thought this was a cool shot with the ship between the rock formations....
Jer & Koryn
Koryn, Mike and Jeremy in their snorkel gear. I went out for about 30 minutes but I don't love snorkeling - just the thought of having all those creatures so close just freaks me out and I can't slow my breathing enough to breath through the snorkel mask thing so I went back on the boat and took the photos and had fun with the bartender attempting to get creative making me anything WITHOUT alcohol in it.
Mike LOVES snorkeling - he was the last one back on the boat!....as usual : )
When we were heading back to the pier we were surrounded by a bunch of dolphins swimming right next to and around the boat. I wish I had my camera ready - this was all I could catch by the time I found it....we felt like we could have reached out and touched them - and there were bunches of them! Another day when we were playing Hand & Foot in the card room on board we saw a ton of whales out in the water - that was cool too but they were much farther away and we didn't ever take photos of playing cards even though we spent more time in the card room than anything else - maybe except for eating!!! Okay, we never took photos of that, either.
This dolphin was literally just over the edge of the boat but was going so fast that the photo was a bit blurry.
On the pier getting ready to tender back to the ship. This is our famous self photo - good thing we have long arms!
Koryn & Jeremy....I highly recommend going on a cruise with fabulous friends - we'd cruised twice before but it wasn't nearly as much fun as this trip --we hope to do it again!
Formal night.
What a beautiful woman! Thanks for being such a great friend, Koryn!...and Jeremy, too !
This is Ensenada in the distance from the deck of the ship after breakfast. We just walked around, had a snack and did a bit of shopping at this port.
A street vendor made these bracelets for our kids - I really thought they'd like them better but haven't worn them since the day we gave them to them...oh well, it was cool to watch them being made!
Of course the typical photo with the huge sombreros (is that how you spell it?)
I was so grateful that my hair has grown enough to pull back in a clip - it was very humid!
I sure miss that bright smile,Koryn -- we'll have to Skype more often so I can get my fill!
On Carnival Cruises, every night when your room steward does the turn down service, they leave you a fun friend called "towel pals" - it's always fun to go back after being out for dinner and a show and see what friend has been created on your bed.
Mike was a part of the show one night when he volunteered to be hypnotized and did some crazy funny things. Koryn, Jeremy and I were laughing so hard we could barely breathe! Maybe I can get some photos from Koryn to post at a later date!
It was such a fabulous trip - wish it could have been longer....I highly recommend cruises - we just love them!!! And no, we aren't made of money, just like everything else, I am quite the bargain shopper! Mike just says I find too many bargains...ha ha...love you, hun!
